A Second Year of Decline: Inside Statistics Canada’s Latest Numbers on the Staffing Industry

Employment services revenue slipped 1.3% in 2025. Ontario grew, Quebec fell sharply, and the Prairies offered a bright spot.

Canada’s employment services industry covers temporary staffing, permanent placement, executive search and professional employer organizations. It generated C$23.89 billion in operating revenue in 2025. That is 1.3% less than the year before, according to Statistics Canada figures reported in October by Staffing Industry Analysts. It is the second decline in a row, following a drop of about 2% in 2024.

Coming down from a peak

The contraction follows an extraordinary run. Revenue rose 18.7% in 2022 and 5.4% in 2023, as post-pandemic shortages pushed employers to agencies for roles they could not fill on their own. When the 2024 figures came out a year ago, they showed the industry’s first decline since 2013. Two years of modest declines have given back only a fraction of the 2022 surge, which suggests the industry is settling back to normal rather than collapsing. The direction, however, is unmistakable.

Statistics Canada attributed the 2025 decline to three factors: ongoing softness in labour market conditions, lower job vacancy rates, and slower population growth through 2024 and 2025. Each will be familiar to anyone running a recruiting desk. Fewer vacancies mean fewer requisitions. Slower population growth, largely the result of federal limits on temporary residents, has tightened the candidate pool in sectors that relied on international workers.

A tale of provinces

The provincial picture is strikingly uneven. Ontario, which accounts for more than half of national employment services revenue, grew 1.7%. Alberta rose 2.9%, and Saskatchewan surged 20.6%. Quebec, which represents about 15% of revenue, fell 12.8%, the steepest decline in the country. SIA linked the Quebec drop to lower job vacancies and structural changes in healthcare staffing.